this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024

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342

ah, conservation (mander.xyz)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Conservationists: Oh boy, here I go killing again!

[–] [email protected] 35 points 7 months ago (2 children)

To be fair that's a very important part

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Up until people start asking how you tell the endangered owls from the invasive owls while holding two dead owls

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Rule one of hunting is to identify your target

At least statistically if you shot a bunch of random owls you're most likely to have shot all invasive owls..

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

If there's one thing I know about the hunting community, it's how much they love rules

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I don't know what you think hunters are doing, just casually shooting every flying thing lol

[+] [email protected] -7 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Uh huh. Hey, how do you easily tell the difference between the two species?

Off the top of your head.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

People who go hunting don't go by "off the top of their head".

Now I can't speak to the laws in California for hunting, but in Canada they have pretty crazy strict laws regarding illegal hunting, including seizure of anything used in the act (trucks, atvs, guns, boats, etc), removal of gun license, and huge fines.

A quick google search shows the method they've used, and have been using for the last decade as an attempt to stop the spread: Barred owls are much more aggressive, and playing their calls can lure them in to fight, in a way the spotted owls don't, so you don't need to just go based on visual differences. Here's one article about the removal process up to now with an interview of a biologist who's pro-hunting.

Relocation of the barred owls isn't feasible, because no matter where you send them, there's probably already owls there, and relocation often results in the animal dying off anyway.

What's the alternative? Watch as the spotted owls are out-competed and go extinct due to human development and habitat destruction? To me, that seems worse. We already hunt to maintain populations of animals in other species - deer spring to mind. Since we've eliminated many of the deer's predators, we need to maintain that role, which includes setting hunting targets each year. Why are these owls different?

[–] [email protected] -5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

very convincing argument

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

Lul

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Visually, in most cases.

Hunters are supposed to be able to identify accurately what they're shooting specifically so that they don't kill endangered species or animals you're otherwise not allowed to shoot. Sometimes it can be hard but if you're not sure, never pull the trigger.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

How are you so confidently uninformed? "I know nothing about this subject so I'm probably qualified to make wild assumptions"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

https://lemmy.world/post/14121035

😂

Good timing, or just shit the hicks do every day?

I know which is true in my neck of the woods.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

I actually know hunters. Good luck with the purge, lmao

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Kill enough until they're both endangered, then it'll be easy

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

That's thinking with patriotism!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Yeah. Actual conservationists tend to be pretty good shots.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago

"Conserve this."

Gunshot

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Are they an invasive species?

[–] [email protected] 56 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Unfortunately so. They are an Eastern US species that has been moving ever westward. And they are, in bird law terms, 'huge dicks'. They've been systematically kicking Spotted Owls out of their traditional roosting spots for about a decade now. Spotted Owls are pushovers, so they've been losing breeding ground. And barred owls are not just dicks to other birds, they don't like humans much either.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Have we considered that that's their secret to success?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Being dicks sure worked for out well for humans.

Wait a second, humans are driving themselves extinct by emitting too much carbon

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Were they introduced to the west by humans? If this migration is occurring without human intervention this is just evolution doing its thing.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's going to be hard to remove human influence on this equation considering almost everywhere the human influence is present.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Agreed, I think a lot of conservationism can even go too far in removing or preventing natural adaptation to the human presence. I was mostly referring to cases where humans can transport species between local ecosystems in a way that wouldn't occur otherwise, which can result in an environmental imbalance that doesn't always fix itself since such changes in range don't usually occur naturally on a scale as large as with, say, the introduction of the brown marmorated stinkbug into North America from Asia.

[+] [email protected] -6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I've never had a lick of problem with the barred owls. The northern spotted owls look rather similar really. They also interbreed.

I hate this owl murdering nonsense. Why are we funding this?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Conservation, I'd guess. Northern spotted owl seems to be threatened species.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_spotted_owl#Influence_of_barred_owl_invasion

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Because we need to balance what we've broken. It's the responsible thing to do

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

We didn't break it. It's evolution. The barred owls simply out nest out, compete and out survive the northern spotted owls.

First, it was claimed that the northern spotted owls could only live in Old growth forests, but that was proven to be false. I've personally seen that it was false because they lived near me.

Then they said that the barred owls and the northern spotted owls did not interbreed, and I felt that that was false because I was pretty sure I came across hybrids. That was then proven to be the case too.

It is illogical to conserve one species by making another endangered. Nothing will change that makes the northern spotted owls better at breeding and surviving than The Barred owls that are similar in size, shape and even coloration.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

They only lived east of the Great Plains until we started building cities and planting trees, as they need high, safe perches for nesting and sleeping. When humans created that for them, they expanded westward all the way to California and started competing with (and killing) other species of owl.

So, yes.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So there’s barn owls and barred owls? Who is coming up with these names?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Scientists have a long seemingly treasured history of trolling everything with their naming of stuff. Not a scientist, so I can't confirm. But from the outside it sure looks like they have a lot of fun with it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Something something something. The

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

ITT: the difference between conservationists and "conservationists"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Owl is back on the menu boys!